Life and scribbles on the far side of SIXTY-FIVE

This is Awkward . . .

Most days I get breakfast, read the newspaper and putter around, or attack tasks / projects I can’t avoid. Lately, there have been a ton of those and I’ve been buried under lots of paper. In spite of concentrating so hard, a few days ago, I noticed something different: SILENCE.

I live in the basement level of the house I share with my daughter and her family. The dehumidifier is going all the time. Or at least it was.

The hot water tank in the laundry-room was replaced about a month ago. Because of the water spill during the switch, I moved the dehumidifier in there to dry up the wet cement floor (decided not to spend the extra money finishing the floor). I shut it down afterwards.

In the past few days, the temperature has been going up outside. Yesterday felt like 35 degrees Celsius. Duh, time to put the dehumidifier back on. I decided not to move it back into the dining / kitchen area and left it where it was—a good thing too.

My dehumidifier is either having an identity crisis or is on strike. I can’t remove the water container—not that it’s full anyway but I keep checking—it keeps icing up inside. When I unplug it, the ice thaws and leaks (on the cement floor, thank goodness). I wonder if a good swift kick might help.

I’m was used to the constant hum it makes; why did it take so long to realize I live in tomb-like silence? Have I forgotten I have a radio? What does that say about me? I am not deaf if that’s what you’re thinking. My problem is neither my hearing nor memory. How can anyone be so busy she doesn’t stop to put some music on?

Anyway, I’ve no alternative. We are expecting a hot, dry summer (as in where’s the rain?). I’m ready to eat nails because I need to go shopping and don’t want to. My dehumidifier is only three years new. Drat.

By the way, now that I think of it, silence is golden or haven’t you heard that somewhere too? My worry is after I swallow the nails I will be screaming and it’s all my dehumidifier’s fault thus breaking the golden silence.

I'm getting a little LONG in the tooth and have things to say about---ouch---AGEing. I believe it's certainly a state of mind but sometimes it's nice to hear that you're NORMAL. I enjoy reading by the truckload. I'm a grandma but I don't feel OLD although I'm not so young anymore. My plan is to stick it out as long as I can on this lovely planet and only will leave it kicking and screaming!

Thank you Tricia. I think it works something like an air-conditioner. It takes the moisture out of the air. Usually people in their basements if they have dampness or when the humid weather hits. Lovely to hear from you. You too. Enjoy.

Yes thankyou! And dad is getting better! And I am getting better! I did get a bit raw and lost with all the drama so far away. But it is ALL getting better now. Thankyou! I trust the sandwiches and soup etc are fabulous in your part of the world!:)

I know exactly what you are talking about! I never have silence, I share my office with a Cockatoo, but I frequently simply sit quietly downstairs without any other sounds and rarely notice if the air fails to kick on. This isn’t age, it is simply being absorbed into other things, happens.

There are some sounds I find comfort in, coffee brewing in the morning I would miss that.

I used to like the soft gurgle of my backyard pond but then it drove me crazy. Coffee perking sounds nice and smells GOOD too. A cockatoo? Hmm. I knew only one, which I babysat for a couple of weeks while my girlfriend and her husband went on vacation. The cocatoo was LOUD and a habitual feather plucker (reason for being loud). I simply like being still and love the quiet. My mom always had to have a radio on or the TV. Never could understand that but she had tinititus (?), so the extra sound helped. I’m glad to hear you can have quiet time downstairs, though, Valentine. Thanks for coming by. Nice to hear from you. I’ve been mostly absent with an overheaped plate. Hope it goes away and gets done by the time the kids are out of school. Can’t babysit the kids and do my work. Ugh.

I was a little worried I wasn’t normal about enjoying silence. My mom always had to have a radio or TV on. She didn’t like the silence. OMG, living next to a school would drive me bonkers with the bell going all day long. Enjoy a quiet summer. Thanks for coming by.

One of my friends who is in business visited my classroom a while back for the day. By the end of the school day, she looked a little pale and I asked her about it. She said she couldn’t believe how we could operate under a bell like we do and also how hard the day was due to standing/teaching and working bathroom breaks around a schedule. And to think many consider teaching an easy job. I will be happy to have a little time away from the bell this summer!

Not yet! I’m still holding off hoping for some miracle, which I now know will NOT come. I must face the music becore it is too late and the sweltering weather makes pudding of my walls and me. Thanks for being supportive the last few days; I feel it did me GOOD.

Except when my grandchildren drop something UPstairs, mostly I have lots of quiet. I like it. Even soft music is sometimes distracting. Thank you for sharing your feeling on silence. See, there’s nothing wrong with me after all. LOL

You are RIGHT. My mother had one for eons. My son-in-law has a similar one and it’s still working. Sheesh, I hate this new-fangled stuff. Now I MUST get one before I absolutely have no choice, and I don’t have one. I had being painted into a corner, especially by a MACHINE! Thanks so much for coming by. Nice to hear from you again. You don’t have this kind of problem, do you (needing a dehumidifier?)

We OUGHT to have one, here by the sea, but “resistance is futile.” If there is one little cloud in the sky, I can kiss my flat iron farewell…some days, frizz rules by default! Always enjoy your posts, Ms. Tess…
~~ssm

I’ve heard some air-conditioner / dehumidifiers lingo and I’m thinking the ‘condenser’ is not working. Still have to talk to my son-in-law before going shopping. Money doesn’t grow on trees. I know for certain that fixing it is out of the question as that would be too expensive—might as well bite the bullet and get a new one but I MUST be sure first. Thanks, Karen. I used to have a dehumidifier on my furnace too but the additional one in the basement helps a LOT. Nice to hear from you. Hope you’re coping well with the up-and-down weather. We’re having rain today and all weekend.

Hi Tess, sometimes I really appreciate the silence. Other times I will put on some 70s music, or the Putamaya African Playground and crank up the volume. My mom used to say, “We’ll se how we feel.” I do have a dehumidifier that I use in the basement, and if anything happened to it, I would just bite the bullet and replace it, because it keeps it from smelling too damp and musty downstairs.

Lucky for me, that’s what I expected, damp and musty but hasn’t happened yet but I know I have to bite the bullet before it gets humid out. Thanks for sharing. Nice to hear from you. Hope you’re feeling good today!

Thanks, but I will have to bite the bullet. I’ll talk to my son-in-law to see if I’m right and the sill dehumidifier gets kicked to the curb. Only three years old. My mom had one lasted years and years and my son-in-law has one similar to hers and same story. These NEW fangled devices…I don’t know. Glad you came by. Nice to hear from you and YES, Silence is soothing.

I love a good hum. We have white noise on in almost all the rooms. I put on a machine that makes ocean sounds/rotates fish as a nightlight on EB’s ceiling; we have window units that crank a hum, and Hubs uses bedside fans for even more noise.

We are all used to SOMEthing until we notice the silence. I had NO idea how delicious the silence was. Sure I still have to go out and spend $$ to buy a new dehumidifier but for now, the first time in three years, I had no idea I had silence. It was there all the time. Imagine that! Awesome! My mother always complained she hated the silence. She had tinititus (?sp?). It helped to have music on in the background. Sometimes I feel even music turned down LOW, a terrible interference. Until this post, I had no idea other people felt as I do. Imagine that! Hope your book is taking a rest as are YOU. Thanks for finding the time to come by. Tess

Silence is indeed golden and I don’t know where you reside, but for me that kind of quiet would be a welcome change. 🙂

Oh and you have my sympathies on the heat, been getting hotter and hotter – for me summers barely started and we’re already hitting 46C and dry with some early signs of power outages at peak times of day. 😦

Hope you have better luck getting through your pile of “to-do” than me, I build it up till it just falls over on me and I have no choice but to clean it up… old habit.

Thanks so much for commenting. Yes, it was summer for a few days and hot. This morning the rain season came upon us and the forecast promises rain all weekend. I still haven’t gone shopping for a new dehumidifier (to be ready when I need it). I feel like I’m spinning my wheels. As soon as I feel I’m getting caught up, my Inbox starts fills up because I haven’t had time to catchup. It’s a vicious circle. Keep up the good work and keep writing. Tess

Lol!!!! I can’t use a dehumidifier (or a humidifier) because both tend to develop mold issues and send me to the hospital. I often don’t notice when things change – ask my husband! I always have something running for ‘white noise’. I don’t need to pay attention to it, but I need it there, especially if I’m writing. Happy shopping.

I could ask a dumb question from my end: How does a DEhumidifier contribute to mold? I only ask because I’m not technical–a person could sell me an igloo if I lived in Alaska or beyond. I use a dehumidfier because it will take the moisture OUT of the basement, so the humidity of the summer doesn’t get trapped there (and cause mold). Here(in my neck of the woods) it works like a air-conditioner—sort of–same end result anyway except opposite to central air UNIT or a window air conditioner, this dehumidifier UNIT can be rolled around a room (on wheels–which it always has) to anywhere in the room as long as the electrical connection can be reached.. Tess

Silence truly is golden my friend, here I write at home so my hours of work are of my own choosing and my study overlooks the green belt with trees and the sweet birdsong, sweet twittering and the trickling of my neighbours pond, a rather tranquil setting that helps me write through the daylight hours, of course my candles are burnt at both ends as the night owl in me caresses the Moonlit sky and bats fly in between the stars, an enchanted continuation of my thought processes as another day begins.

I do hope that your dehumidifier behaves itself soon or I
will have to send the Zombies round to sort it out for you 🙂

Your writing space sounds inviting, calming and productive. I only burn my candle at one end because I’m asleep before they’re half burned. Waste of time, I know but I need my beauty sleep. Bats? I remember bats, but they used to come out not long after dusk when I was a kid.

I finally parked the dehumidifier a couple of weeks ago when I thought the motor was starting to burn. Time to bite the dust for that one.